. >> reporter: and according to deborah gordon, professor of biology at stanford, they do it all without a boss. >> in an ant colony there's nobody in charge. there are no bureaucrats. no foremen. there are no managers. there's nobody telling anybody what to do. >> reporter: wait a minute. don't ant colonies have queens? >> the qee does not give rules. she does not make proclamations. she just sits there and lays eggs. being the queen would be the most bore job in the ant society. >> reporter: okay. so the queen isn't in charge. but ladies do rule the colony. virtually any ant you ever see is a female. males just mate once and die. so all these females survive and thrive together. all without a leader. which can be hard for us humans to understand. >> we put a lot of effort into thinking through how to organize some of the things that we try to do as groups. ants don't put in any effort at all. they're pretty messy about it. it works really well. >> reporter: most ants, it turns out, simply follow the crowd. and now it turns out scientists are following ants to attack one of life's most